NZ's opposition party says NZ-China free trade deal of global strategic importance

WELLINGTON, April 8 (Xinhua) -- China's trade deal with New Zealand was of global strategic importance as it has shown the rest of the world it is willing to drop trade barriers if they will as well, said trade spokesman of the National, New Zealand' major opposition party, on Tuesday.

The spokesman Tim Groser said the deal was an excellent one and fully deserved the backing of his party, the New Zealand Press Association reported.

New Zealand and China signed free trade deal in Beijing, China, on Monday.

The deal gave an extraordinary amount to New Zealand in terms of the size of its economy, said Groser, who was a diplomat and trade negotiator before entering Parliament.

He added that the deal had been done by China to further its strategic interests by setting out a template deal that its more important trading partners could take up if they wished.

Because New Zealand had restructured its economy and removed many barriers over the last three decades this had allowed it to do the deal.

"This made it so much easier for New Zealand to accept a clean deal and what is remarkable is that the Chinese have also accepted a very clean deal," Groser said.